I am developing MakerNet (makernet.org), a solution for sustainable OSH businesses. It’s a git repository for hardware (proper open licences incl. CERN OHL 2.0 soon, hardware file previews…) with a store front and a manufacturer database, and allowing the designers to be paid (we think it’s a key part in making OSH sustainable).

We are in beta and still have a lot to do but we’d like to work with and help anyone to figure out how to make OSH a profitable alternative to the proprietary paradigm. MakerNet is also set up as a business to make it sustainable.

We are happy to have found the GOSH community as it seems that some of your problems are what we are trying to solve
Feel free to answer if you have any question/suggestion/other.

Welcome to the GOSH forum! This sounds like an exciting project. A couple of questions spring to mind.

How does (or will) the store work in terms of international sales. We are setting up a small business in the UK to print and sell our microscopes. The tax implications of selling them internationally daunt me. One thing we were interested in is finding a sales platform that that handles international sales so we don’t have to. Is this something makernet plans to look into? I feel it may help other small OScH producers.

How does the Git integration work? Upping and moving repos is annoying, and I think we are trying to settle on one location for all the software and hardware. Will there be an option to work in a similar way to kitspace.org, a website that reads in from GitHub/GitLab rather than being the primary host.

Have you considered the interface in the context of users from a non-programming background? Personally I love the GitLab interface, but we have collaborators who are not not familiar with Git. They find much of the terminology confusing, and often get lost trying to download a single file.